Looking to the Future
by clicketykeys
Summary: Vacy Fiorst finally says the three words Corso Riggs has been longing for. Unfortunately, it isn't quite in the context he was hoping for. Chapter 4: Vacy explains why she's so skittish. FINAL!
1. Stick With the Plan

**Chapter 1 – Stick With the Plan**

* * *

Corso Riggs stood upright, pulling the smoke-lensed goggles to his forehead and rubbing at the bridge of his nose. He set the arkenstone down on the work bench for a moment and sighed in frustration.

"Corso."

Sometimes it's not so much what is said as the way it's said. Hearing his captain say his name _like that _– low, soft and sultry – sent prickles up Corso's spine that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

And that was before he looked to the doorway.

He'd seen her wearing next to nothing in the cantina on Coruscant – _felt her, too,_his mind whispered – but somehow this was worse. Or better. He couldn't really decide.

Her sleeveless white dress was loose and bloused out around her torso, the gauzy material almost luminescent against her olive skin. It was short, too; probably originally meant as a shirt, but someone her size could make it work as a dress. He swallowed thickly, because _she really made it work_. She had on a pair of tall black boots that went over the knee, but there were several inches of green clearly visible…

He yanked his eyes back upward as she walked over toward him. Her smile offered all sorts of nice things that he tried not to think about. "H-hey, Captain," he managed, knowing his grin was as wobbly as the tone of his voice.

"Riggs, I distinctly remember someone saying something about too much work," she said, tracing one finger up along his bare arm.

Corso had worn the shirt he'd gotten from the gang on Nar Shaddaa – it was comfortable, and it was easier to work without sleeves getting in the way. Of course now he wasn't sure it had been a good idea. Thinking was getting awful hard. He blinked. Felt his face suddenly burning. _I hate my brain._

Vacy placed her hand on his cheek, and all he could manage to think was _taller_ and then _oh, peaches._

She was so warm in his arms, and her mouth was soft and open. His hands caressed her smooth, bare skin for several moments before it clicked that there was no back to her dress. He stilled for a moment, and saw her smile as she watched him piece it together, his rough fingers gently whispering over her skin. Just skin. Nothing else. Which meant the back of her dress wasn't the only thing that wasn't there.

_I am the biggest damn idiot in the entire damn galaxy_. Corso Riggs sighed, putting his hands on her shoulders and stepping back just a touch. "Care to tell me what's goin' on, Captain?"

Vacy rolled her eyes. "We were gonna go out, but… well, I saw you, and I thought, hey, why go out to a cantina when I got a good-lookin' guy like this right here?" She grinned devilishly. "Seems a bit inconvenient to go all that way if I ain't got to."

Corso's stomach began to wind into a knot, and he felt his jaw tighten. "Hold on a sec, there. Did you just say I'm _convenient?"_

"NO," she snapped in reply, yanking away from him. "…not exactly," she muttered. She sighed with a huff, folding her arms. "Don't see why you can't just loosen up a bit."

"You know I want more than what you're offerin' now. I don't want to be another one of your conquests!" He turned away from her, walking to the other end of the workbench, and his voice was bitter. "And right now, sounds like that's all you see."

She sidled up behind him, slipping her arms around his waist. "It's not like I'm gonna toss you out of my bed and off the ship soon as we're done." She pressed against him, curving her body against his.

Corso whirled, pulling free, his eyes snapping. "Dammit, Vacy, you're not listening to me. _That's not what I want."_

Smirking, she glanced down. "I think there's someone downstairs who disagrees with you quite a bit." Vacy stepped close again, reached up, and stroked the faintly-stubbly skin of his jaw with both her hands before kissing him, deep and slow. "C'mon, babe," she whispered. "Y'know I love you…"

And he suddenly realized who his carelessly-seductive, smooth-talking, ignore-all-protests Captain was reminding him of. Despair twined with disgust in the pit of his stomach, and he simply pushed past her, walking to the door. He paused, looking back at her. "You don't, Captain," he said bluntly. "You ain't got the faintest idea."

With that, Corso Riggs headed back to his quarters to pack.


	2. Putting the Pieces Together

**Chapter 2 - Putting the Pieces Together**

_**[Important note:** There's a list of background/story questions on my profile. PM me up to 3 and I will answer them about Vacy! I'm having a rough week, and stories/reviews/questions/conversation have really helped it suck a bit less. So, if you're able, I'd love to have more stories to read. Or questions to answer. Or messages to respond to. Or reviews, ALWAYS. Hearts!]_

* * *

_Well done. Painful, but effective – and less painful now than it would be later. He doesn't realize it, but you did right by him._ Vacy recognized the truth in what her survivor-voice explained. But somehow it didn't matter.

_Right, because lying is always the best way to handle the situation. You suck, Vee._

Vacy Fiorst stood where Corso had left her, staring at nothing.

* * *

His feet were numb, but his steps led him down the hallway that circled the core of the Wonder, toward the crew's quarters. As he passed Risha in the hall, Corso paused.

He frowned, because something seemed off, though he couldn't quite put his finger on what.

She was wearing her usual fuschia-and-black getup, the one she seemed most comfortable in. The one she always changed out of when she and the captain went on one of their benders.

Suspicion wasn't something that he was used to, and so it took a few moments for him to decide to act on it. Didn't help that acting on it meant going over and talking to Risha. He sighed, shoved his hands in his pockets, and ambled toward her.

Risha looked up, brows lifting in surprise, first at seeing him, then more so as she looked him over appreciatively. "Well, hey there, Mouse. _Nice_ shirt. What brings you this way?"

He knew he wasn't much good at this subtle stuff, so he just barreled ahead. "Uh. Hey. Weren't you an' the Captain goin' out on the town?"

But Risha just looked at him like he'd sprouted an ear in the middle of his forehead. "Mmmmm… nope." She smirked, leaning against the curved wall, and put one hand on her hip. "Why, you feeling frisky?" One brow arched. "Awww, Mouse – did you come over here to ask me out?"

This was _definitely_ not part of the plan, and Corso stepped back quickly. "Uh. No. Nope. Not at all." Which was a bit unkind, he realized, and he hadn't intended to be. "I mean, you're nice an' all… mostly… but, uh, not… I mean it's just that I don't like you." This was not getting any better. "Uh. I mean, I do like you – sort of – but not like THAT." Maybe it would be better if he just shut his dadgum mouth. So he did.

Risha was grinning broadly now. "Aw, c'mon, Mouse! Don't stop now. I was havin' fun!" She chuckled, shaking her head. "And it didn't even involve anything illegal."

Corso managed a weak smile. "Thanks, Risha," he said quickly, and left before he got himself in any deeper.

Still numb, he headed the rest of the way to the crew's quarters, and sat down on his bunk kind of heavily. _She don't go out by herself. And she don't go out with Bowdaar. And she wasn't goin' anywhere with Risha._ He sat there for several moments, considering what that meant. _So it's possible she was gonna ask me to go along. Course, that ain't what she did. And she's the sort that's always got a plan._

Corso didn't like the idea that she'd deliberately set out to remind him of Skavak, the way he said things he never meant but that women just sighed to hear, the way he never bothered to remember anything about them, even their names. But he couldn't escape the feeling that she had done everything she could to get him mad enough to leave. He frowned. She had to know that if she'd really wanted him gone, all she had to do was say so. It was her ship, after all.

_Why do women have to make everything so dang complicated?_ With a muttered curse, he stood. Maybe it wasn't the best way, but facing a situation directly was the way he knew best, at least. He sighed, and then headed back toward the workstation.

Toward Vacy.


	3. Confrontation

**Chapter 3 – Confrontation**

"Captain."

She realized she had no idea how long she'd been standing there, but Corso's voice cleared her head instantly. She took a breath, closed her eyes for a moment. _Focus, Vee._ She pasted on a sneer, then turned on her heel, eyes narrowed at him. "Oh. There you are, Riggs. Thanks for ruining my good mood, by the way. Figure I'll need three or four drinks just to change that." She headed briskly for the door, smirking as she neared him. "Fortunately I don't think I'll have to worry about buying them for myself."

But Corso's expression didn't change – his eyes were dark and sad, and she found she couldn't meet his gaze. _Walk past and knock him a good one with your shoulder._ She knew her survivor-voice was right, but she found her steps slowing as she neared him.

_What in blazes are you doing? If you don't cut him loose now, you'll rip him apart later, you selfish bitch. _She set her jaw, but he reached out and touched her shoulder, and she paused, still not looking at him.

"Vacy," he said, and it really, really wasn't fair what simply hearing him call her by name did to her, especially with his voice all quiet and gentle like that.

Dammit, he cheated worse than Darmas.

He drew a breath, and let it out in a long sigh. "Captain, if you want me outta your life, all you gotta do is say so." He put his hand down, still just looking at her. "I'd follow you past the edge of charted space. But if you tell me to leave you an' not come back… I will. Is that what you want?"

_Problem solved! Just say it!_

She took a careful breath, and _(SAY IT, YOU SPINELESS FOOL)_ … and … and nothing would come out. Finally she managed, "What I **want **isn't always what's most important." And then she winced, because that sounded just ridiculously weaselly. Fortunately, he was sweet and probably wouldn't laugh at her. Probably.

"It is to me."

His simple statement caught Vacy off guard, and she looked up in surprise. It was like he said "water is wet," or "it hurts when you get shot." Like it was a simple statement of fact. Which was silly, and preposterous, and impossible. She closed her eyes, then, because looking at him, it was also obviously true. "Dammit, Riggs," she whispered. "How can you…"

They were both silent for several moments, the unspoken words hanging heavy in the air between them.

"No," Vacy felt her survivor-voice curse at her while her devil-voice cheered as she admitted, "I don't want you to leave, Riggs. I just… there's an awful lot you don't know. An **awful **lot."

"I realize that, Captain. And I want you to know that I'm okay with it." Corso chuckled a little when she looked up at him incredulously. "Really! Though, if you wanna go sit down and talk a bit? I'd be glad to listen. You seem real tore up, and I don't know what else I can do that'll help."

Vacy looked down at herself with a bit of a grin. "Hm. Maybe I should go put a bit more on, and meet you in the lounge?"

He lifted one shoulder, grinning right back at her. "Well now, don't go out of your way on my account. I think I've demonstrated that I'm quite able to resist your feminine charms."

And while she stuck her tongue out at him, it was through a smile. "I don't believe I was being particularly charming," she said dryly.

"Wiles, then," he said, taking her hand in his. "You were definitely being very wiley."

They stepped out into the hallway, but Vacy hesitated. "Not that I don't trust Bowdaar and Risha, but this isn't a discussion – well it's not one I want to have **at all**, much less out in public." She nodded the other direction. "You mind if we talk up in my cabin?"

Corso stepped back, letting her pass. "Right behind you, Captain."

* * *

[So things are slowing down; I'm thinking about my writing more, which hopefully results in better finished pieces, but means they also take longer. What I really want to work on now is weaving in more description and action; I feel like my stories are dialogue-heavy. I still have enough story ideas that I'm not going to go back and revise just yet - I want to keep things moving forward. Rather, I'm hoping I can make my newer stories a bit smoother. Here's hoping!

Thanks for reading, everyone. Hearts and snuggles! :D ]


	4. Dark Reflections

**Chapter 4 – Dark Reflections**

* * *

The room was dark when Vacy stepped through the doorway, so she went over to the control panel by her bed and nudged the dial for the lights upward as Corso came in behind her. She pressed her palm to the screen, and the door hissed shut again.

Turning to face him, Vacy paused, weighing her options. She knew what the smart thing to do would be. Wasn't often that it was the right thing as well. That should've made it easier to just sit down and tell Corso about Bryson.

The problem was that what she wanted to do was rotten and dumb and she knew she'd regret it within minutes. Probably sooner, though it depended on how long it took. She didn't figure she'd regret kissing him while she was actually in the middle of things. No, regrets would come later. But as she prided herself on not having regrets, she smiled wryly as she walked over to him. "You sure we can't just have sex instead?"

Corso shook his head with a grin, his dark eyes crinkling at the corners. "Captain, we both know it wouldn't be wise." His smile softened as he continued to look at her, and he reached for her hands, his fingers interlacing with hers. "Though, don't be mistaken." He tilted his head down, his cheek brushing hers as he whispered in her ear. _"I want you."_

And this time it was Vacy who skittered away, backing up and walking across the room, folding her arms and staring at the wall because she couldn't stand to face him. "Corso, you just don't seem to understand. I've flat-out told you that I'm not the kind of person you seem determined to believe I am." She took a shaky breath, scrubbing her face with her palms. "Up 'til now I've tried to get away just with that, because I didn't want you to know about the rest of it. Syreena was just the first one you saw."

She heard a gentle creak behind her and didn't need to turn around to figure out that he'd sat down on the edge of her bed. She stood there, her back to him, trying to decide how to begin. "I haven't been the captain of the Wonder for all that long," she finally said. "That was Bryson for years."

Vacy took a slow breath, trying to steady herself. "He was my brother." She turned, pacing at the end of the room, arms folded tightly over her chest. "We fleeced this courier – took everything in a bait-and-switch. Figured him for an Imp, way he was dressed." She stopped by the locker she never used, but she wasn't looking at it. Wasn't looking at anything, really. "Turned out I'd read him wrong. He was a personal runner for Nem'ro, why he was dressed so fancy."

She was silent for awhile, then let out a long sigh. "I picked out the marks. You always gotta be ready for things to go sour, but… that one was bad." Vacy shook her head. "Wasn't even a day before they were on to us. Picked up Bryson from a cantina… he probably didn't even know he'd been marked.

"Bit of slicing gave me all I needed to know. I hadn't had a bit in that particular scam beyond picking the mark, and there wasn't a bounty on me. Just Bryson and our partner, Asty." She closed her eyes. "I remember the SIS agent who came up to us. Smug bastard, worse than Skavak. Wanted to know what we knew about Nem'ro. That was how Asty and I figured it out. SIS never gets anything first; if one of their agents was on to us, so was Nem'ro.

"They'd taken Bryson to Hutta. Asty and I split up – found out later he got killed when someone tried to collect on him – and I took the Wonder after Bryson. He was there, in a cell. Told me to leave him, that they'd just come after him again. Don't know how he'd found out I was still clean – well, mostly. Said that was the smart thing to do."

Vacy turned around and looked at Corso again, her eyes flat and calm. "I knew he was right, too. So that's what I did. I looked my brother in the eyes, and then I turned around and I left him there to rot."

She walked over and sat down beside him on the bed. "You seem to see me as this high-minded hero, but I ain't. Not sure I even know how to be. Given a choice between doing the smart thing and doing the right thing, I'll pick the smart thing." Vacy lifted her shoulders. "Would've been easier if you'd left because you thought I was a tramp, but… I guess you have a right to the truth," she concluded with a quiet smile.

Corso just sat there beside her for some time, looking down at his knees, until he finally nodded in reply. "But you've kept that to yourself all this time. Takes quite a bit of guts to walk out like that. Ain't you proud of it?"

Her lip curled in disgust. _"Proud_ of it? Proud of abandoning my brother to some _sradliva verocht?"_She just stared at him, shaking in fury.

Watching her, he smiled a little. "Captain, you think all I see in you is rainbows and bubbles, that I've got you up on some impossible pedestal, but that ain't true. Maybe I didn't know the details, but I've already seen your darkness." She started to interject, but Corso shook his head. "And I ain't gonna say it ain't worried me at all, but… I've also seen you fightin' against it." He took a breath, slow and uncertain. "That's what I … well … why I think of you … like I do. You're more like sunlight than rainbows."

Vacy thought about that one for a minute, then wrinkled her nose. "All right. You've got me stumped, so you're gonna have to explain that one to me."

"Y'see, rainbows ain't really there. And if you move, or it quits rainin', they disappear." His cheeks were flushed, but he couldn't seem to look away. "Sunlight, though… sometimes you can't see it. Maybe there's a storm, or it's just real overcast. But it's always there, even behind the thickest clouds."

She blinked. And then she chuckled. And it wasn't entirely bitter. "Guess I didn't give you enough credit, Riggs." She leaned against him and heard him breathe in sharply. A few moments later, she felt his arm wrap around her shoulders. They sat quietly a little longer before she asked, "What happens when I do something really awful?"

His arm tightened around her, and he sighed quietly. "We've got enough to worry 'bout right now without addin' to it, Captain. It's late; why don't we both tuck in? Been an eventful evening."

She nodded, and when she stood, so did he. "Thanks," she said, and she struggled to find a way to say what she meant, because it was more than that, but somehow the words just weren't there.

But Corso smiled, as though somehow, he already knew. "You get some rest. Things'll look better in the morning." She palmed the door open, and he stepped out into the hall. "They always do." He held her gaze a moment more, then headed down the hall to his quarters.

Sleep came a lot easier than she'd expected it would, and when she woke up, she realized that Corso had been right. She even whistled a little as she got dressed and headed to the bridge. And of course, sitting in the captain's chair eased her tension further – though – she lifted her right hand with a frown.

On the arm of the chair, just under where her hand would rest, was a small, round sticker, no larger than the pad of her thumb.

Her expression softened, and she smiled.

* * *

[What did the sticker look like? Check my profile! :) I'll leave it up for a week or so - after that you'll have to PM me to find out XD

By the by, the story title comes from a killer line from this killer scene – youtube video g_FcSm1wUu0

Also – so much for adjusting the dialogue-to-action ratio. :P Still, this time I feel like I have an excuse!]


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